Monday, May 28, 2012

As a blogger of ill-repute, I am occasionally invited to
attend sponsored PR events.Sometimes I
come back from these events wondering what on earth I was going to write
about.Other times I would come back
needing a hot shower and a cold drink to erase the memories of the limp canapés
and warm wine.But sometimes, not often
mind, I come back with the‘OhMyGodThatWasSoFrickingAwesomeIthinkMyHeadMayExplode’ feeling.The Fastest Blogger event organised by
buyagift.com that I attended last week was one of those events.

Their invite was quite simple, come down to Silverstone and
spend a day driving a Caterham 7.I am
not beyond introspection and there is a reason that I only drive a Ford Fiesta
– It’s because I’m an idiot.Put me in a
car and I want to drive it fast, hence only trusting myself with a Fiesta on
the roads – anything faster would be a disaster (with a ghetto blaster, and a
headmaster).So there was no way I was
going to turn down the opportunity to drive one of those beasts.

Upon arrival I met the Caterham team and my fellow bloggers
and we were given a safety briefing.The
instructor tended to look at me a lot whilst giving his warnings, I think he
could smell the speed-freak in me.He
then explained that they were going to teach us how to drift a car and do
doughnuts (you know, the ones policemen don’t like, the tyre smoking ones not
the glazed ones).Drifting a car
involves careful manipulation of brake, accelerator and wheel coupled with lots
of screeching, smoke and adrenaline soaked fun.

There were three cars and 17 bloggers so in between turns we
would sit down and have a bit of a natter.I had sat myself down with Miss Daisy and her daughter Megan (sorry
Wendy, I did warn you) and soaked up the sun in-between bouts of
boy-racing.There was banter, there was
laughs and occasionally there was clapping when one of us achieved a
spectacular doughnut.

Believe me, there is no better feeling in the world than
screeching sideways around a corner with your heart threatening to jump out of
chest and not getting nicked for it.We
were a mixed bunch in the driving talent department (the best line I heard was
“This is the first car I’ve ever been insured on”) but by the end of the day
all of us had improved beyond our wildest expectations.I had started the day thinking that everyone
would get all testosteroney and über-competitive, but there was a real sense of
camaraderie as we all cheered each other around the final drifting course.

If you ever find yourself going to one of these events (and
I strongly suggest you do), I can’t guarantee you the same weather – scorchio,
or the same great laughs with fellow bloggers, but I can guarantee you will
have a day you will remember for a very long time.

I want to thank the team at buyagift.com, the perfect place
to find fathers day gifts (especially if my kids are reading this).I’d also like to thank the Caterham 7 team
for letting me thrash the nuts out of their cars, even after I thought I had
broken one after a spectacular spin off the track.The only negative thing about the whole day
was having to drive my front wheel drive Fiesta home, all in the knowledge that
it couldn’t recreate the day in my local Tesco’s car park.Damn.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

BP have recently launched a set of new medallions called the
BP Legends Collection – a series of 12 medallions depicting ten British Olympic and two British Paralympic
winning moments from past Games.To help launch this they kindly invited me and the Mrs to the ‘Our
Greatest Team Rises’ event at the Royal Albert Hall.A star spangled event where the Hoi Polloi
could mix it up with the bold and the beautiful (well from a distance anyway).

The situation demanded a Tux, something I wasn’t looking
forward to.Most days I can barely be
bothered to put on jeans and I even have a special pair of them for ‘formal’
occasions, but several frowns and scowls convinced me to toe the line and tux
up.

Before the event we got to meet and have a chat with Sir
Steve Redgrave, without doubt our finest ever Olympian and whose face adorns
the first medallion.He happily posed
for pics with us all and answered all things Olympic, including a story about
all the traffic problems he encountered during the Atlanta Olympics.As someone living right on top of the Olympic
Park, it’s something I hoping isn’t repeated in a few months time.

There was an impressive list of performers at the event:
Gary Barlow, Mel C, Will Young, Alfie Boe, The Feeling, Kimberly Walsh, Charlie
Siem, The Noisettes and Spellbound (who hilariously sat in front of us after
they had performed and instantly started tweeting en masse). We also had the
pleasure of Davina McCall, John Bishop and Dermot O’Leary (who when we saw him
outside my wife pushed me in the road in her haste to get to him) hosting the
evening.Plus, gasp, William and Cate,
yep the real ones, also put in an appearance.

A great night was had by all and was topped off with a dash
through Holborn station when the Station Announcer informed us as we got off
the Piccadilly line train that “The last central line train will be leaving in
two minutes.”Cue a mad dash of Tux’s,
evening gowns and various other late night drunks running through the station
in fits of infectious, mad, breathless laughter.

The BP Legends Collection Medallions can be purchased from BP’s forecourts across the
country. The first medallion is available for £1 together with an official
presentation pack and the remaining 11 medallions will cost £2 each.All profits from the sale of the Our Greatest
Team Legends Collection will directly support Team GB and ParalympicsGB to help
aspiring athletes deliver their best performance at London 2012 and beyond.

For more information about the Our Greatest Team
Legends Collection and how you can start collecting the limited edition
medallions, visit www.bp.com/medallions .

So as not to
fall foul of the Blogging Police, this is a sponsored post (if you hadn’t
guessed by now).We attended the event
as guests of BP and they even bought me a beer, but just one mind, they didn’t
get me drunk and write this for me ok.